Hewlett Packard

This fairly hard to find Hewlett Packard made HP 65 calculator was produced from 1974 up until 1977 and retailed for $795.00. It was HP's first programmable pocket calculator and had a built in magnetic card reader - writer. It featured a single line red LED display and used RPN logic. It was also HP's third scientific calculator. It is known for being used in 1975 by the astronauts of Apollo to make calculations that helped them dock with the Soviet space station Soyuz. The HP-65's were used as backups in case the main computer system on the Apollo went down.

The HP65 was the first appearance of the "Tall" keys where each key had the capability of implementing 4 functions. As you can see, each key has a function on its face, one listed above the key as well as one on the forward face of the key. By pressing the yellow second function key the user could access the inverse of the function listed above the key.

HP made a subtle design change with the HP 65 as well. As you can see in the picture below the older HP-35 on the left has a silver trim line going under the display and above the on/off switch. This silver trim would wear quickly, as it has on this calculator, when the calculator was turned on and off over time. So, with the HP 65 the trim was repositioned around the top of the display and away from the on/off switch. This kept the calculator looking newer longer.

The HP-65 could read from and write to magnetic cards. So, the user could input their own programs, of up to 100 lines, into the calculator and save them to the magnetic card. They could also use pre-programmed magnetic cards that came in what HP called "Pacs". The HP 65 came with a "Standard Pac" of 40 magnetic cards that contained 19 programs. There were also additional "Pacs" available including:

The HP 65 came with a hard plastic case for the calculator and accessories as well as a soft leather case for the HP 65 itself. Accessories included the HP-65 reference guide, HP-65 Owners Handbook, Power supply, and Standard Pac magnetic cards.

The fully functional HP-65 is a difficult calculator to find and prices reflect that. Many times the card reader does not work as the reading mechanism gets gummed up over the years. Still, a fully functional HP-65 will sell for around $400.00 alone. Throw in the original case and accessories and the price can reach $700.00

This HP 70 is a fairly difficult calculator to find in good working condition. It is a business calculator that Hewlett Packard offered as a lower end choice to the HP 80. As you can see it has a unique color scheme with the orange keys and green/gray case. It also does not have a shift key and the "Save" button was relabeled to "Enter". The HP 80 has two memory positions entered with the STO key followed by either the K or M buttons. The HP 70 lasted only a short time on the market, hence its relative scarcity, and was supplanted just a year later by the HP 22 which had more features and was cheaper.

Introduced in 1974 the HP 70 utilizes a LED display and RPN logic. The top row of buttons are time value of money functions and it has 2 memory registers. There was memory storage addition to the M register but not the K register.

As mentioned above the HP 70 was not on the market for very long which translates into few units produced and even fewer remaining today. So, collectors will pay a high price for it. Sales in the $300-$400 range are not uncommon and can go higher if the condition is excellent and all accessories are included.

This is the HP 11C which was introduced to the calculator buying consumer in 1981 and was discontinued in 1989. The 11C is a scientific programmable calculator and had a retail price of $135.00 though by 1989 its price had dropped to $56.00. It featured a landscape liquid crystal display capable of showing 10 numeric digits. The HP 11C was part of Hewlett Packard's Voyager line of calculators and was only inferior to the top of the line 15C at the time. The Voyager line was HP's first to incorporate landscape LCD displays and also included the iconic HP 12C financial calculator.

The 11C utilized RPN logic and incorporated some non-programmable features such as Hyperbolic and Inverse Hyperbolic Trigonometric functions, Combinations, Permutations, Factorial, Absolute Value and Percentage Change. It also has 20 storage registers, indirect storage register addressing, Gamma function, and 203 step programming. The 11C had half the memory of the 15C and twice as much as the lower cost 10C.

HP engineers wanted to make the display for the 11C easier to read then previous calculators hence the switch to a large LCD. They also utilized urethane foam washers to help absorb any shock and it was implied that it could withstand a drop from shirt pocket level to the floor. The HP 11C can be opened via screws located under the rubber feet on the back of the unit.

The Hewlett Packard HP 11C is a very popular calculator with collectors. It can bring from $100.00 in average condition to nearly $300.00 in excellent condition and including some accessories such as the box, CD, manual and case.